


Order

by antonomasia09



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Force Choking (Star Wars), Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Inspired by Fanfiction, Post-Order 66, armed soldiers corralling a crowd of civilians, luke cuddles are the only good thing in fox’s life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:27:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25192384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antonomasia09/pseuds/antonomasia09
Summary: Fox saves Luke from what he thinks is an assassination attempt by someone with a very familiar face.
Relationships: CC-1010 | Fox & CT-7567 | Rex
Comments: 27
Kudos: 295
Collections: Commander Fox





	Order

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [resurrection](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23699740) by [blackkat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat). 



> This was inspired by blackkat's Contraption 'verse, and won’t make much sense without reading _resurrection_ first. I started writing it before _semblance_ came out, so Fox doesn’t know that Shank is de-chipped, but he does know that Vader used to be Anakin Skywalker, for the Drama (TM).
> 
> My thanks to blackkat for allowing me to use her universe, and to alyyks for beta reading and crying over Fox with me.

Fox is cold and wet and miserable, and it already feels like he’s been standing here for hours, although it can’t have been more than a few minutes.

Luke can’t stop looking around, wide-eyed, at this chilly damp moon, so different from the deserts of Tatooine that were all he ever knew for the first six years of his life. He tugs absently at the collar of the tiny officer’s uniform that had been delivered to Vader’s quarters that morning, and Fox nudges him as a reminder to leave it alone. Between Luke’s uniform and his slicked-back hair, the boy looks older, hardly like himself.

This is the third stop they’ve made on their galactic inspection tour, and Fox can already tell it will be just as boring and uncomfortable as the previous two. Fox isn’t even sure why Vader is bothering to bring Luke dirtside, given that he ignores his son the moment they arrive in favor of speaking to the admiral who greets him with a sharp salute.

But Vader insists, every time. And where Luke goes, Fox has to follow.

Fox keeps one eye on Luke, who is pulling at his uniform again, and the other on the crowd that is starting to gather in the town square. Kef Bir is sparsely populated and was mostly ignored during the war, but now that valuable metals have been discovered on the neighboring moon of Alprezar, the locals have been pressed into mining. Based on their expressions, they don’t seem happy about that, or about an Imperial visit.

There’s something about the murmuring of the crowd, the way the people are gesturing, that’s setting off alarm bells in Fox’s head.

He’s moving to step in front of Luke before he even realizes why; a whistling noise, barely audible, accompanies the dart that bounces off his armor and clatters harmlessly to the ground.

The crowd breaks out in shouts as Fox signals two dozen troopers down into it, with orders to find the would-be assassin. Fox himself wastes only enough time to stoop down and pocket the dart as evidence before grabbing Luke by the arm and dragging him back onto the shuttle.

Once they’re safely in the cargo bay, with the ramp up and sealed, Fox drops to his knees in front of Luke to run his hands over the boy, checking for injuries. To his immense relief, he finds none.

“Are you all right?” he asks Luke, who bites his lip, nods once, and then bursts into tears and throws himself at Fox, hugging hard enough that Fox is worried about the armor bruising him.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” he says, stroking golden hair.

The last thing he wants to do is let go, but Fox saw the trajectory of that dart, and got a glimpse of the very familiar face of the man that shot it.

There’s another clone out there who isn’t brainwashed into obedience, who is awake and knows himself, and Fox needs to find him before his men do.

He sighs and starts pulling back, but Luke only clings tighter.

“Don’t go,” Luke begs, and something in Fox’s heart breaks as he gently detaches himself from Luke’s grip.

“You’ll be safe here,” Fox tells him. “I need to go find the man that tried to hurt you and make sure he never does it again.”

Luke sniffs but nods and lets Fox go.

“Don’t let him hurt you either,” he says.

“I won’t,” Fox promises.

***

Outside, the chaos hasn’t yet had a chance to diminish. The square is still packed full of frightened civilians hemmed in by armed troopers, although enough have slipped through the cordon that the narrow winding streets surrounding it are impassable.

The brother he’d seen had been near the edge of the crowd, and had no doubt made a run for it the moment Fox intercepted the dart. With all the Imperial forces on this planet mobilized to look for him, he’ll be trying to get offworld as quickly as possible.

With that in mind, Fox leaps up, manages to catch hold of a windowsill, and pulls himself up, finding hand- and foot-holds in the rough-hewn stone, until finally he’s standing on the roof of the nearest building. Eyes the distance to the next one, runs, jumps, rolls, and catches himself before he goes off the edge. Then he does it again and again, making his way towards the far edge of the town and the fields that lie beyond it, with grasses tall enough to hide a small jet fighter.

His brother may have had a head start, but he’s been forced to take a meandering path towards his destination, while Fox is sprinting over rooftops in essentially a straight line. He catches sight of his quarry near the town limits, puts on a burst of speed, and then throws himself off the rooftop directly at the cloaked figure below.

The man half-turns and looks up, but can’t stop his momentum, and so Fox lands directly on top of him, toppling them both to the ground. It’s a milder impact than if he’d landed on the hard stone roadway, but it still drives the breath from Fox’s lungs and knocks the helmet off of his head. He chokes and gasps, but manages to get himself upright faster than his brother beneath him.

Fox draws his sidearm and points it at the man who’s hunched over coughing harshly, the edge of his cloak knocked back to reveal short-cropped blond hair.

Blond clones were rare but not unheard of. There’s only one that Fox knows for sure is unaccounted for, though.

“Rex?” he says, and his brother’s head snaps up.

Fox notices the way Rex’s eyes dart to the left side of his face, searching for a scar he doesn’t bear, and the way Rex’s shoulders sag a little when he realizes who Fox isn’t.

“Fox,” he says, his voice carefully neutral.

“You hoped I was Cody,” Fox says.

Rex dips his head in acknowledgement. “I thought he was the one in charge of Vader’s legion.”

“He is. I was transferred to Vader’s personal command a few months ago.”

Rex eyes the blaster Fox is pointing at him, frowns at the designs on Fox’s armor. “You used my name,” he says. “You used _Cody’s_ name.”

“There’s something in our heads erasing us, making us forget, making us follow orders. Vader disabled mine,” Fox tells him, and doesn’t let his hands start shaking at the memory of that sudden bolt of pain, of that sudden burst of _awareness_ , and the knowledge that Vader can take that away from him again whenever he pleases.

“But you’re still with him,” Rex says, and he sounds confused and indignant, and Fox is suddenly furious because where has Rex been all this time that he thinks he can pass judgement on Fox? As glad as Fox is that Rex has somehow escaped the fate of every other clone, part of him can’t help thinking that it’s not fair that Rex was able to get out when it’s _his_ general who destroyed the entire kriffing Republic.

“I never took you for the sort of man who would try to kill a child,” Fox says, low and vicious, and Rex recoils.

“It was a tranq dart!” he says. “My mission was never to kill the kid; I was supposed to be rescuing him. Do you know who his father was?”

“Yes,” Fox says. “General Skywalker.”

“Exactly,” Rex says, urgent. “The child of a Jedi, in the hands of a Sith Lord.”

Rex used the word _mission_. He’d been standing much too far away to grab Luke, even if his dart had found its mark. He must have had a partner in the crowd, maybe more than one. And they were sent by someone.

There’s a network of rebels intent on taking down the Empire, Fox knows. He’s certainly heard Vader curse them often enough; has been sent down to planets to wipe out entire villages on just a rumor that they might be harboring operatives.

Fox lowers his blaster and tucks it back into its holster. Rex gets to his feet cautiously, a hand pressed to the ribs that Fox landed on. 

“You’re with the rebels?” Fox says.

Rex hesitates a moment, then nods. “Commander Tano disabled the thing in my head shortly after it was activated, and got me off the attack cruiser before it crashed into a planet. I ran into an operative a few years back, and I’ve been with them ever since.”

He doesn’t say whether Ahsoka or any other troops made it off the cruiser, and Fox doesn’t ask.

“Rex,” Fox says. Angry as he still is, he doesn’t actually want to hurt his brother, but the rebels need to know. “General Skywalker _is_ Darth Vader.”

Rex freezes for a moment, then shakes his head. “No,” he says. “No, General Skywalker died six years ago in the purge.”

“He didn’t,” Fox says, remorseless. “He pledged himself to the Emperor and took command of the entire army.”

Rex is still shaking his head, and his eyes are haunted. “He wouldn’t do that,” he insists. “He wouldn’t use his men like that. He cared about us.”

“Maybe he did,” Fox says. 

He still remembers General Skywalker’s aggression when Fox had prevented him from visiting Commander Tano in prison, and the way his hand had crept towards his lightsaber as if he was considering just cutting his way in directly through Fox. Personally, he thinks that, even then, Skywalker only remembered the clones were people when it didn’t inconvenience him. 

“He doesn’t anymore.”

Fox stares into Rex’s eyes and lets him see the truth of it.

Rex shudders. “Then that kid…”

“Is innocent,” Fox says firmly. “And you’re not going to hurt him.”

“Is Vader hurting him?” Rex asks.

Luke has yet to come back from a training session with a bruise, but he’s always restless after, unsettled, and he clings to Fox like Fox is the only thing holding him together. “He’s…teaching him,” Fox says.

Rex’s face darkens, like he knows what Fox isn’t saying. “And you’re what? His prison guard?”

“His bodyguard,” Fox says, sharp, and glares pointedly at Rex. “Turns out there are all kinds of threats on this planet to protect him from.”

Rex winces at that. “I’m sorry,” he says, then adds. “I still think he’d be better off with us.”

Fox doesn’t disagree. But Rex’s mission has failed, and Luke is safe and well-secured in Vader’s ship, and the faint noise of the crowd in the distance is getting louder. They’re going to have company soon. Based on Rex’s head-tilt, he knows it too.

“Come with me,” Rex urges. “I can get you away, you don’t have to go back.”

Fox shakes his head. “If I don’t, he’ll kill every single one of our brothers on the destroyer.” He swallows. “He might anyway, if I let you go.”

Rex pales. “That’s what he’s holding over you?” he says, horrified.

Fox nods. Can’t quite bring himself to speak.

“I can’t let you take me in,” Rex says, and Fox can see how much he’s struggling with himself, how much those words hurt to say. “Not even to save them. I have too much information about the Alliance.”

Once, it would have been inconceivable for a clone to choose to save his own life at the expense of his brothers. Fox hates that Rex has put him in this position, but more than that, he hates Vader for being so cavalier with the lives of his men that he’s willing to slaughter thousands of them just to make a point.

“I know,” he says. Besides, he doesn’t have it in him to drag Rex in front of Vader, not after what Rex tried to do. Vader wouldn’t spare Rex out of any loyalty or affection towards his former second-in-command. He certainly hasn’t Cody or Boil or Appo.

Fox pulls his blaster again, and Rex backpedals, hands raised. “Whoa, hey, hold on,” Rex says, his voice tight with fear and his eyes wide. Fox shot Fives in front of him; he hadn’t meant to, didn’t understand how it had happened until after he’d woken up from the chip’s control, but it’s burned into both of their memories. Rex knows he’s capable of taking the shot.

He could make it fast and painless. Rex’s intel would be safe, their brothers would be safe, and Luke might have nightmares about what happened today but at least Fox would be able to assure him the threat was neutralized.

But Fox can’t kill Rex. As jealous as he may be of Rex’s freedom, it still makes his heart soar to know that there’s at least one other clone who’s not walking around chipped and bound to follow the orders of a corrupt madman.

Fox reverses his grip and holds the blaster out for Rex to take. “Make it look good,” he says.

Rex looks at the blaster and then at Fox before reaching out to take it slowly.

“I’m sorry,” he says again. “For everything.”

“Just do it and get out of here,” Fox says.

Rex takes careful aim, pulls the trigger, and Fox falls.

***

Staggering back to his feet afterwards and slowly making his way back to the ship is possibly the hardest thing Fox has ever done.

Rex’s shot hit him in the shoulder, neatly in the gap between his chest plate and pauldron, and his armor rubs against the wound every time he takes a step. He’s leaving a blood trail, weaving and unsteady as he lurches from the support of one building to the next, and he’s worried that he’s taking too long, that Vader will assume Fox has failed and leave without him.

Fox allows himself one flash of longing for his medkit on board the Executor before dismissing the thought as irrelevant. He may not survive Vader’s wrath anyway.

He breathes a sigh of relief when he gets to the square and the ship is still there. The crowd of civilians has dispersed, and the only people moving around are troopers guarding the perimeter. One of them comes over when he sees Fox, and Fox lets the trooper duck under his good arm and help him up the ramp of the ship. “Lord Vader is awaiting your report,” the trooper tells him.

Luke comes running the moment the ramp closes, but stops himself before he barrels into Fox, and the arms he wraps around Fox’s waist are gentle. “I thought the assassin got you,” he mumbles into Fox’s stomach.

“Only a little,” Fox says, letting go of the trooper so that he can pull Luke in closer. Luke clings, sniffling a little, and Fox wishes more than anything that he could tell Luke that everything would be all right, but he knows that’s a promise he can’t keep.

The tell-tale sound of Darth Vader’s respirator has Fox stiffening to attention, dread settling into his bones. Luke pulls back but not away completely, sticking to Fox’s side.

“Report, Commander,” Vader says.

“My apologies, sir,” Fox forces out. “I was unable to capture the rebel assassin.”

Vader snarls, and the next thing Fox knows, he’s up against the wall, an invisible hand pinning him by the throat and squeezing. The impact jars his shoulder, and he’d scream if he had any breath in his lungs, but the most he can manage is a desperate gurgle as he writhes, straining for air.

He can hear Luke shouting, and it sounds like he’s begging Vader to stop, to let Fox go, but it’s hard to hear over the pounding in his head. His vision grays and his arm drops, lacking the strength to keep clutching at his neck, but before he slips away entirely, the pressure lets up, and Vader drops him to the floor in a pile of limbs. Fox curls inwards, coughing as he gasps in air through his bruised throat.

“You know the punishment for failure,” Vader says, and Fox _hates_ , more than he’s ever hated in his life, and rages at his own helplessness to prevent what is to come. He wants to make Vader hurt the way Vader is going to hurt him, to tell him that the assassin was once Skywalker’s closest friend and then describe the way Rex’s face twisted with horror and then anguish and then fury when Fox told him who Vader used to be.

But Vader can read Fox’s mind, or at least his emotions, and Fox isn’t going to let Vader get a glimpse of Rex in his head and put the pieces together. So instead he concentrates on his fears of what Vader will do in retribution. On the dread of losing brothers, and how many Vader will take from him.

“Please, my Lord,” he whispers. “Spare them. I’m the one that’s failed; kill me, not them.”

Luke makes a soft noise of protest, but Fox keeps his head down.

Vader signals to two troopers, who come over and haul Fox to his feet. He doesn’t fight them, just stands there swaying. Luke looks like he wants to run to him, but Vader has a grip on his son’s shoulder, and Luke doesn’t try to break it.

“Only a hundred this time,” Vader decides. “And you will not fail me again.”

“No my lord,” Fox says.

One hundred men who survived the war, who survived six years of Imperial rule, and Vader is going to execute them like they’re nothing.

He tries telling himself that they are walking dead already, their names gone, mindless automatons doing nothing but following orders. They're already marching far away, and he closes his eyes, not wanting to think about what’s coming, not wanting to watch.

Rex is out there somewhere, alive and fighting. The rebellion knows about Luke, and they know about Vader now, and they’ll be making plans. One day, Fox will see Vader destroyed, he’s sure of it. Until then, all he has to do is make it through.


End file.
